Suntime Criticism

The criticism for Boy from the Chicago Sun-Times makes great points about the film as a whole. Roger Ebert mentions that there was potential for the film to go two ways, both which were cleverly avoided by Waititi. Ebert presents the idea that the film could have been the classic story where Boy’s father (Taika Waititi) was the typical bad guy, “introducing a threat to son” or on the opposite side of the spectrum, becoming a film that used too many unnecessary elements, thus making it “flashy”. As a viewer, the film prompted you to consider these options, but as stated by Ebert, it was avoided in a way that the viewer did not even consider until the end of the film. Ebert makes an interesting point about the contrast of Boy’s mother’s tomb, in its colorful nature, versus the actuality of life and how it appears to Boy. Boy’s dead mother’s gravesite is extremely colorful with drawings on every surface, to “celebrate the dead woman”, whereas Alamein and the rest of his “gang” are all constantly dressed in dark colors and tend to hang out in dimly lit bars and grungy garages. There appeared to be a slight shift in color to a more yellow tint when the audience fully sees Alamein, subtly cracking the idolized dream that Boy had for his father. The use of color was a …show more content…
Goldstein and Linden make note of the importance of these elements and how they add to the overall whimsy and aesthetic of the film. The authors make a subtle nod at the aesthetic elements and the films ability to transport the audience into the eighties with the word “Quirkfest”. Potentially seen as a negative adjective, they quickly follow up with praise for the director’s choices for all of the set, costumes, and hair designs, adding to the validity of their